Wolfgang Kohler's Contributions to Learning

Wolfgang Kohler's Contributions to Learning

Learning affects an individual's behavior through cognition in many ways. One of the most obvious ways is the acquiring of a skill. Kohler, a Gestaltist, was a believer in the value of perception and insight in terms of our cognition and how we are more than our behavior… that we actually have mental processes that govern our capacity to solve problems and make decisions in regards to learning and behavior. Kohler performed many experiments with chimpanzees to assist his theory about perception and insight. Although, we cannot confine our learning to solely abiding in Kohler's theory, he was still able to allow room for the reflective places in cognition and how we go about using these tools.

KOHLER & HIS CONTRIBUTIONS TO LEARNING

Learning is defined in Compton's Online Encyclopedia as "the lifelong process of acquiring skills, information, and knowledge." Many scientists now define learning as the organization of behavior based on experiences. There are many other definitions of learning because there are many other theories about how humans and other animals learn. But, all learning involves an interaction between an individual's brain, and the rest of the nervous system, and the environment…the surrounding world. Some theorists insist that learning takes place by organizing one's perceptions in certain useful ways. In a famous demonstration of learning by insight, the German-American psychologist, Wolfgang Kohler, showed that chimpanzees fit several sticks together in a makeshift pole to obtain food that was otherwise out of reach. Their behavior suggested a sudden understanding of how to solve the problem rather than achieving their goal by tri...

... middle of paper ...

... experiments by Kohler have made significant contributions to the world of Gestalt Psychology. Perhaps he gave us a means of questioning the possibilities involving animal cognition as well as human cognition, and our capabilities of insight and perception and how those two characteristics dramatically change the way we see our world.

Bibliography:

REFERENCES

Compton's Encyclopedia On-line. Retrieved March 22, 2000 from the World Wide Web: http://www.optonline.com/comptons

LeFrancois, Guy R. (2000). Theories of Human Learning, What the Old Man Said (4th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Psychology Links. Retrieved March 23, 2000 from the World Wide Web: http://www.kirjastosci.fi

Gould, C. G. (1971). The Animal Mind. Tucson, AZ: Pritchard Print.

Kohler, Wolfgang (1925). The Mentality of Apes. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.